How to Order Custom Silicone Products: MOQ, Tooling Cost, Logo Removal and Lead Time

2026-10-24 · 6 min read · Sourcing · Tooling · MOQ · Branding

Most custom silicone enquiries die in the first reply, usually over one of four numbers: minimum order quantity, tooling cost, branding, or lead time. None of them are secret, and none of them are as complicated as a price list makes them look. This page explains each one, states ours, and shows the order in which everything actually happens.

If you already know the material, start with LSR vs TPE — how to tell liquid silicone from TPE and Shore A, Shore 00 and Shore C. If you have not chosen a shape yet, our product library lists 140+ existing moulds, and what we do in-house covers tooling, colouring and finishing.

1. What the minimum order quantity actually means

Minimum order quantity is not a sales tactic. It is the smallest number of pieces that can be produced economically from one tool, in one colour, in one batch — and it exists because of what happens immediately before the part is finished: the colour has to be mixed, the material has to be cured, and the batch has to be run as one job rather than a handful of leftovers from three different jobs.

Our standard quantities are 100, 500 and 1,000 pieces per model, with a volume allowance at the higher tiers. Three practical rules matter more than the headline number:

• The quantity is per model, and per colour. Running the same tool in five different colours does not make it one order of 500 — it is five orders of 100, each with its own colour batch and its own setup.
• Different models can be combined into one shipment. You are not forced to order 100 of a single shape. We can put 30 of one model and 70 of another in the same carton, subject to each model still clearing its own minimum.
• Multi-colour and marbled pieces count differently. A two-colour pour or a marble swirl occupies more of the tool and more of the cure cycle, so the practical minimum for those constructions is higher than for a single-colour part. If you are unsure, ask — we will tell you the real figure for your construction rather than the catalogue one.

If your own demand is smaller than the minimum, say so plainly. Sometimes the right answer is a stock mould in a stock colour. Sometimes it is a different construction with a lower tooling burden. Occasionally it is better to start with one model at 100 and add the rest after the first run proves the demand.

2. Tooling: when you need your own mould, and when you do not

Silicone is cast, not machined, so every shape needs a mould. That is the whole reason tooling cost appears on a quote at all.

We hold 200+ moulds in our own tooling shop, so most first programmes start from an existing tool. A private mould is worth it once the volume justifies it: if a shape will be reordered repeatedly, the tooling cost is amortised across the first order and every one after it, and it becomes the cheapest line on the invoice. The maths is simple — divide the tooling quote by your annual quantity and compare that per-piece figure against the unit price difference. Below a certain volume, a stock mould wins; above it, a private tool wins. We will show you the crossover for your own numbers rather than pushing you either way.

Two things worth knowing about private tools: the cost is one-off, and it is not perpetual — the tool belongs to you, but keeping it alive, modifying it or re-cutting it after years of storage has a maintenance implication we would rather raise now than later. And a modified tool is usually a new tool: changing a shape means a new cavity, and a new cavity means a new quote.

3. Branding: we remove our logo, and we never touch yours

Two rules, and the second one matters more than the first.

We remove our own logo, for free. If a stock mould carries our mark, we take it off at no charge, no minimum and no lead-time penalty — send us the model number and we will confirm whether that tool can be cleaned before production. We do not charge for this, because it is our mark on our own tooling, and a supplier who invoices you to remove their own branding is charging you for a problem they created.

We never remove a customer's logo from their own mould. If a tool was made for a customer — including a model that has since been discontinued, or that the customer intends to revive for a new programme — the mould carries their mark, and their mark stays. That tool is their property, they paid for it, and their identity on it is not ours to erase. If a customer asks us to revive a tool we made for them two years ago, it comes back with their logo on it, exactly as it left.

Discontinued does not mean abandoned. A dead model on a dead tool is still someone's brand asset, and the right answer is to ask who owns the mark — not to quietly clean it off because that is more convenient for us. We will tell you plainly when a tool cannot be used, rather than alter something that belongs to someone else.

For everything else, there are two separate decisions, and buyers often mix them up:

• Branding on the part itself — a moulded logo, a raised or recessed mark, or a printed mark applied after curing. Moulded into the tool is permanent and costs nothing extra beyond the tool itself. Printed is per-piece and adds a setup cost that only makes sense above a certain volume.
• Branding on the packaging — printed carton, colour sleeve, hang tag, leaflet, or a sticker over a neutral box. This is where a real private-label programme lives, and it is usually the more valuable half: a customer who only recognises your product when they open the box has not rebranded anything.

On packaging we can work from your artwork or supply a structure, and we are comfortable producing neutral packing — plain PE bag and plain box with no branding of any kind — for customers who need the product to arrive without our name on it. Ask for the specific construction you need and we will confirm what is possible on that tool.

4. Lead time: what "35–45 days" actually covers

Our standard production lead time is 35–45 days, and that figure is measured from one specific point to another: from the moment a final drawing and colour are approved, to the moment finished goods are packed and ready to ship. It does not start earlier, and it is worth being precise about where the calendar time actually goes.

Two practical consequences. First, the sample stage is on the customer's side of the clock — a week of shipping and review sits between the tool being cut and production starting, and it is the most common place a programme loses a fortnight. Second, the clock starts at drawing approval, not at order, which is why a programme that is still "deciding on the shape" is not yet a 35-day programme. If you are working to a launch date, work backwards from it and tell us the date — we would rather negotiate the specification now than explain a delay in December.

For repeat orders against an existing tool and an existing colour, the process compresses sharply: no tooling, no new sample approval, and the production run alone is often the majority of the calendar. Many customers who start with one careful sample order are on repeat production within a season.

5. The order in which everything happens

Six steps, and only two of them need you:

1. Choose the shape — from our mould library, or send us a reference and we will tell you whether it is mouldable in silicone at all. This is worth doing early: some shapes that look simple are not castable, and the earlier we say so, the less it costs.
2. Agree the specification — dimensions, Shore hardness, colour, surface finish, and whether the part carries branding or ships neutral.
3. Tooling and sample — for a private mould. You receive a physical sample and approve it.
4. Quotation confirmed — with the quantity tier, tooling cost if any, and the production lead time.
5. Deposit and production — production begins on approval of the drawing, running in parallel with sample approval wherever possible.
6. Inspection and shipment — finished goods checked against the approved sample, packed, and shipped with the documents your customs broker asks for.

What we would like from you to start

To quote properly we need four things, and nothing else:

• The model number from our library, or a drawing / photo / link of what you want made
• Target quantity — and the quantity you realistically think you will repeat
• Colour: solid, multi-colour, marble, or glow
• Branding: moulded logo, printed, packaging artwork, or fully neutral

Send those four and we will come back with a specification, a quantity tier, a tooling position and a date. If a shape needs discussing, a photograph and two sentences is enough for us to tell you whether it is worth proceeding. You can reach us through the contact page, or write to us directly at jessie@sukecorp.com.